Gustav von Bodelschwingh

Born in Gadderbaum near Bielefeld in 1872, he came from the well-known von Bodelschwingh family and grew up in a deeply religious setting shaped by the work of Bethel. After studying Protestant theology in Greifswald, Berlin, and Basel, he served first in Bethel and then as a pastor in Dünne.

He later followed a long-held wish to become a missionary in German East Africa. Beginning in 1912, he worked with the Bethel Mission in places including Mlalo in the Usambara Mountains and Giteme on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu. During the First World War, he served in military hospitals and was taken prisoner more than once before returning to Europe in 1918.

Back in Germany, he served briefly again as a pastor before retiring early and devoting himself to a practical social project that made him especially distinctive. Drawing on earthen building methods he had encountered in East Africa, he promoted low-cost home construction through the Heimstätte Dünne association, helping create more than 300 houses for working families. He died in Bielefeld in 1944.